Girding Our Loins: The Armor of Truth in Today's Battle

Summary

Girding our loins with truth emerges as a pivotal concept in our ongoing battle against the adversary that seeks to undermine our faith and convictions. As we traverse the profound teachings found in Ephesians chapter 6, we unravel the significance of this ancient phrase, which encapsulates the necessity of fortifying our very essence with unwavering truth. In a world inundated with deception, the act of embracing truth becomes not merely an option but a solemn imperative, particularly for parents endeavoring to safeguard their lineage against the encroaching darkness of contemporary challenges.

Through insightful dialogue, Tamara K. Anderson, Tiffany Fletcher and Amy Johnson delve truth, drawing upon scriptural wisdom to illuminate its transformative power. They ponder the implications of standing firm in one’s faith, recognizing that the adversary’s most insidious attacks often manifest in the form of self-doubt and lies—a battleground that resides within our minds. Join us as we explore how cultivating a robust relationship with the truth can empower us to navigate the complexities of life with grace and resilience, while also fostering a legacy of faith that endures across generations.

Show Notes

This enlightening episode invites listeners to reflect on the profound implications of 'girding our loins with truth' as articulated in Ephesians 6:14. Tamara K. Anderson, Tiffany Fletcher and Amy Johnson weave a narrative that is both thought-provoking and deeply personal, as they share their own struggles and triumphs in battling the lies that often cloud their perception of truth. The discussion emphasizes the necessity of being vigilant in our spiritual lives, as the adversary seeks to sow seeds of doubt and confusion.

The hosts provide actionable insights, encouraging listeners to engage in exercises that identify the lies they believe and replace them with the liberating truths found in scripture. By framing truth as a form of armor in our daily lives, they highlight the importance of community, prayer, and scripture study in cultivating a strong spiritual foundation. Ultimately, this episode serves as a clarion call to embrace truth as a source of strength and clarity in navigating the complexities of life.

Takeaways

• The phrase 'girding our loins with truth' metaphorically emphasizes the necessity of fortifying our lives with the unwavering principles of truth, particularly in spiritual battles against deception.
• In Ephesians 6:14, the armor of God begins with truth, underscoring its foundational role in safeguarding both our spiritual integrity and our familial legacies.
• As we navigate a world rife with misinformation, it is of utmost importance to actively seek and embrace truth, allowing it to illuminate our path and dispel the darkness of lies.
• The discussion highlights that the battle against the adversary is fought primarily in our minds, where we must discern truth from falsehood to maintain our peace and light.

Hosts & Guests

Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson

Tamara, founder of Women Warriors of Light, is a dynamic speaker, award winning author, and a podcaster. She is driven by her Christian faith to inspire faith in Jesus Christ. Alongside her husband, Justin, she navigates the joys and challenges of parenting four children with autism, ADHD, and mental health hurdles. You can find out more about Tamara on her website: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/ 

Tiffany Fletcher @tiffnyfletcher

Tiffany is a member of our Women Warriors of Light advisory board. She is an author, wife, mother and an example of faith & courage. Through her life experiences she shares hope in coming from a place of darkness to light and love. You can find her on social media @tiffanyfletcher or on her blog: motherhadasecret.blogspot.com

Amy Johnson @amyajohnson5

Amy is a member of our Women Warriors of Light Advisory Board. She is a leader of women, a homemaker, and a licensed cosmetologist. Amy enjoys nurturing women through betrayal trauma to becoming a beacon of support and inspiration.

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/utVR7CUs2sI

Transcription

Tamara K Anderson

00:00:00.800 - 00:00:25.140

What in the world does girding our loins with truth mean in this battle against the adversary in our lives today? I know that's a verse we read in in the New Testament and how does it apply? Because we are in a battle.

So stay tuned and we're going to discuss this today because we need truth and light in our lives more than ever.

Host

00:00:27.210 - 00:01:03.620

Welcome to Bible Women in Bathrobes, the podcast where faith meets comfort.

Join us Tuesday morning as the gals from Women warriors of Light and their guests don bathrobes and dive into the inspiring stories of women in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ. From Esther's bravery to the Sermon on the Mount, we explore it all with warmth, laughter, sisterhood and maybe even a few sleepy eyed moments.

Tune in live or at your leisure as we learn lessons from scripture which empower women today.

Tamara K Anderson

00:01:08.560 - 00:01:21.976

Hello and welcome to another episode of Bible Women in Bathrobes. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson. And joining me today are two amazing women from our Women warriors of Light advisory board.

Welcome back Tiffany Fletcher.

Tiffany Fletcher

00:01:22.168 - 00:01:25.060

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here today.

Tamara K Anderson

00:01:25.520 - 00:01:30.040

And also welcome back Amy Johnson. Thanks for being here, Amy.

Amy Johnson

00:01:30.200 - 00:01:31.220

Good morning.

Tamara K Anderson

00:01:31.680 - 00:02:56.330

We are so excited to talk a little bit further about this Casting off darkness, putting on the armor of light, putting on Jesus Christ. And today you're going to find us in Ephesians chapter 6. This is a great, great chapter on the different parts of the armor of light.

And last week we talked about who our adversary is and how we can battle him. And today we're going to start getting kind of down to the nitty gritty, these individual pieces that Paul lists in Ephesians chapter six.

And so if you want to follow us along, we're in Ephesians chapter 6 and we are going to read, I'm going to read 13 and then this verse 14 which talks about our loins being girt. And that's not a phrase we use today. So we're going to dive into that.

So verse 13, wherefore taken to you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth.

So this is the first piece of armor that Paul mentions here in this section. And, and I thought I'd just open it up for discussion. What does that even mean? Amy, let's start with you.

Amy Johnson

00:02:56.630 - 00:04:34.870

I think first it's really important to look at the phrase take unto you, because in reality that means to receive, which to me means that God is willing to give that to me. Or someone is.

I'm assuming it's God, because we often think that we have to do all the work, but the fact of the matter is that the Father stands ready to help us, and all we have to do is receive what he's willing to give us. And so I love that phrase, take unto you the whole armor of God, because to me that means, look, I'm standing here handing it to you.

Just take it so that receive it unto yourself, so that you can stand in the last day. And I think that's pretty awesome because I think often we do forget that the Father stands right. They're ready to help us.

But then when I think about loins, the loins were so important to them.

We've talked many times on this, on this podcast about the birthright and about having children and the vitality of having children and how important that was to them and how if you couldn't have children, you were mocked and shamed and all of those things. And so when you look at this and you see that the very first thing that they are protecting is the loins, I don't think that's coincidental.

I think that's how important the family is. I think that's how important children are, and I think that's how important lineage is.

Tamara K Anderson

00:04:36.370 - 00:04:43.490

Wow. I'd never thought about it in that regards before. That is some powerful insight there. Thank you, Tiffany.

Tiffany Fletcher

00:04:44.310 - 00:07:37.580

I love that, Amy, because if you do look at it from that perspective, what are they armoring it with? And they're arming it with the truth. And as parents, what is it that is going to keep our kids safe in these last days?

It is armoring them with the truth of Jesus Christ, helping them know that he is their savior and that in the darkness, he is their light and they can stand next to Him. And that is, for me, a powerful symbol right there. We are protecting our children as parents with our.

Our loins gird about with truth, but also theirs. And I think that that is such a powerful, powerful image for us as parents to remember that the truth is what's going to keep our lineage safe.

It's what's going to help them navigate what lies ahead in their lives is going to be for our children and our children's children that salvation that's going to help them overcome the darkness of this world. And. And that's truly powerful. I. I also think it's important, like in warfare, when they gird their loins back in the days, they.

I mean, men Wore for lack of term, dresses, but they were, you know, what, what togas. I don't know what they called, but basically they wore something that made it so that it was hard for them to run.

And so girding up your loins is pulling. Pulling them up and putting, like a belt. They. It was the kind of belt that they would put on and, and it would make it so their.

That their frock that they were wearing were more shorts so that they could run in battle and that they were prepared to go. And I think that that's a really important symbolism to recognize too, because as we're.

We are girding our loins with truth, what we are doing is we are. We are standing in truth so much and understanding it so much that when the wiles of the adversary come, we can stand firm in what we know.

We are anchored. We are ready to fight. We are ready. And.

And I'm not saying that we need to, like, fight when people are disbelieving or don't believe in the things that we do because we try to be peacemakers, right? But what we are doing is, is we are fighting that internal battle within ourselves instead of losing our faith.

We are standing firm in our faith and we are moving forward in our faith because we know what we know, and we are not going to let anyone cause us to lose that faith that we already have. So I think that that's really powerful.

And it's also important, as you said, Amy, for our lineage to help them stand firm in their faith so that when the adversary come or the world throws things at them that are really hard for them to understand, they will stand firm in knowing what they know about Jesus Christ and knowing that he is going to be able to help them fight their battles when they come. So I. I just love that. I think that's beautiful.

Tamara K Anderson

00:07:38.320 - 00:10:08.140

So, so good. I was thinking this morning on the power of that word truth. We know that Satan is kind of the father of deception and lies and all that stuff.

And so I love that this is the opposite of that, having truth on our side. There is that beautiful verse in John, chapter 8 where he says in verse 32, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

You know, that truth is so powerful. And what it also says there is that truth makes us free, so lies captivate us. And I just thought, oh, so. Because that's the opposite, right?

And so I think discerning truth versus lies in this battle of light and darkness is one of the keys, right?

That we can that we can help not only ourselves, but our children, those around us, to be able to see more clearly and fight this better battle better is understanding truth. And of course, truth is in the scriptures. Right? We can find truth in the scriptures. I think that's one of the. My most favorite places to find truth.

And as I've done deep dives into truth before, here's just some verses that have popped out at me. Psalm 117. 2. Truth of the Lord endureth forever. So truth is something that it's true not only now, but it is forever.

And it will be forever forward and forever backwards. I love that.

I find it interesting that in Jeremiah, here's an interesting thing, he says that when people are turning away from God, they're not valiant for the truth. And that's in Jeremiah 9:3. Not valiant in the truth. And so that makes me turn that around and say, how can I be valiant in the truth?

That's what a warrior of light kind of conjures in my mind. How can I be valiant in the truth? And I love that.

Amy Johnson

00:10:08.750 - 00:11:51.560

But see, Tamara, I think when we stand in truth and we stand in things as they really are, then we are more likely to be able to be the kind of people that create light around us. Because what happens is that when we stand in lies, it.

I work with this every day where you're dealing with lies that are in our head, and then that creates a darkness in our head because we tell ourselves a narrative that isn't true.

And so when we stand in truth and we're willing to look at truth, it might cause some uncomfortable emotions, and it might cause us to feel not quite, you know, like, comfortable, but it.

Eventually we get used to truth, and then we can be creators of light, and we can be creators of peace, and we can be creators of strength, and we can build people instead of tear them down because we see things as they really are, because we are standing in truth. And I think that is really something that we kind of have lost sight of a lot.

And again, I don't think it's coincidental that it was loins that needed to be girt in truth, because since the beginning of time, the adversary has attacked the family. He's attacked purity, he's attacked virtue, and there has been sexual sin and abuse since the beginning of time because he knows that that is this.

That is like a major source for destruction.

Tamara K Anderson

00:11:53.430 - 00:11:56.766

So, so good. Tiffany, any thoughts on these?

Tiffany Fletcher

00:11:56.918 - 00:15:13.090

Yeah, I. I love talking about truth in this way because I think sometimes we forget to even Read our scriptures, right?

Like we go through the day and we just struggle to fill our lives with good truth, the real truths of the gospel, right? And instead we're maybe scrolling social media or, or we're looking at the news of the day and we're filling our minds with all of those things.

Like Amy said that just minds with doubts and just give us questions and make us worry and, and then we wonder where her, where our faith is gone, right?

But in reality, if we are filling our head with junk, like if we are, if we are listening to the lies of the day and not, not going to the source of truth and spending time with, with the Lord, spending time in his scriptures and filling our lives and our hearts with truth, then it gets very easy to be deceived in today's world because there's so many voices, so, so many voices. And so for me, like one of the important things that I do is I, I literally ask Heavenly Father for the gift of discernment.

Like I pray for that gift of discernment so that I can discern the truth from the lies and that I can move forward in the truth. And that's the thing that I love about the spirit because we know that the Spirit will teach us truth, right?

The spirit is going to help testify of truth when we hear it. And so when we hear something and it doesn't sit well with us, like we need to cast that thought out of our mind.

Like if you haven't listened to the last podcast about, about spiritual warfare, like, you know, casting Satan out of our lives and our minds in that turmoil and just getting clear on, by casting him out and so that we can be clear on what voice we are listening to.

I think is really important because if we can, if we can use the spirit to help, the spirit is what's going to help us discern right, Right or wrong, truth and lies. Spirit is going to help us discern.

But if we're not spending time in the scriptures, if we're not spending time in prayer, if we're not casting Satan's influence out and inviting his spirit and his angels in, then we are going to get lost in the noise of our day and we are going to, we are going to be deceived. That truth is not going to be something that, that we recognize. I love the scripture in John, John 2, verse 20. Let me read it. Let me.

The verses 20. Let's see, let me look really fast. Have it written down 19 to 21.

And it says, and this is the, this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrong in God. Like, I think that's so important. Like, if we love the world more than God, then we are going to feed into the lies.

But if we love the light, then we are going. And the truth, then that is what's going to, like you said, Tamara, is going to set us free.

It's going to set us free from the lies of the world and give us the discernment that we need to move through all of the noise and the darkness we have ahead of us before Christ comes again.

Tamara K Anderson

00:15:15.390 - 00:19:46.840

Wow, these. I love these discussions. They help me see things so much more clearly. And I think.

I think that's the beauty of diving into truth, into the scriptures, is being able to see the adversary's plan of attack, filling our mind with lies. I love what you said, Amy, about the lies that he tells us in our heads.

I think that is probably one of the major battlegrounds, is right here in our brain because he doesn't want us to believe in who we truly are, who we can be with God's help. And so he puts those lies in our brains and we begin to believe them. And so I think it's important that we do. We find out, who am I in God's eyes?

I am a son or a daughter of God, powerful. And if I am that, that means I can tap into him and be God strong with this armor of light, right?

I can put on Jesus Christ and be God strong and strong enough to stand against these attacks of the adversary. I love what you said, Tiffany, also about the spirit of truth.

And I kind of looked that up and there's several verses, especially the apostle John was really good about calling the spirit in John 14:17.

Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it doesn't see Jesus, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And so I love that John says that we can have this spirit of truth in us.

The world doesn't get the spirit of truth, but we can actually ask for that spirit of truth. And I was just like, wow, this is a powerful thing. I like how you ask for the spirit of discernment.

And we can also ask for that spirit of truth that that is an actual thing that we can pray for, we can pray for in our daily lives. Help me to have the spirit of truth discern.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a guy speak at church, and he is in marketing, and that is where he lives all day long.

And he was talking about how he was been watching the world go down this just terrible train of spreading discord and how people will search up different keywords that drive discord and division. And then they just kind of tap on that button and it's driving all this hatred and these lies in our last days.

And I find it so interesting as he said that I'm like, oh, my gosh, he is just totally shining a light on what the adversary is doing here, propelling lies, that if someone is like this, then you need to hate them, you know?

And I just thought, how opposite is that from God's truth that Jesus wants us to be united like you said, that he wants us to be peacemakers, that he wants us to feel love and peace and joy. And how much of that do we see coming from different sources nowadays? Not very much.

And so I think it's so interesting that when you really shine the light on the truth of Jesus Christ and what he's teaching, it isn't this division. It is that we can be united. We can be united in God.

And does that mean that the adversary is going to suddenly just kill over and say, oh, well, they're united now? No, he's going to keep fighting us. He wants to divide us. He wants us to be angry with one another. He doesn't want us to be at peace.

And so it is so interesting that if we pray for the spirit of truth, if we pray for the spirit of discernment, that. That we can see. We can see his battle plan here, and we can go, oh, it is so clear to me now. You know what I mean?

It is so clear to me now what he's doing. And he knows that we're in the last days right before Jesus is going to come again. And so his battle is fierce.

But that means that we need to be fierce or valiant. As I was reading, valiant for the truth, valiant for the truth, that God does love us, that the people around me are my brothers and sisters.

You know what I mean? And so that I need to see people as brothers and sisters and be kind. And that's hard sometimes.

Amy Johnson

00:19:46.920 - 00:19:47.448

Oof.

Tamara K Anderson

00:19:47.544 - 00:19:48.584

Amy, you look like you want to say

Amy Johnson

00:19:48.592 - 00:24:04.900

especially when our brain tells us that they're the enemy, right? That's really the problem it isn't that. It isn't that I don't have a good heart.

It isn't that I don't necessarily want to do good, especially anybody who's participating in this podcast. Our desires aren't to just destroy, but what happens is in our head, right? In. In Proverbs, it talks about the six things that the Lord hates.

Then it says seven. So six and seven. But one of them, he says, is an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. And I. I find that that's more what happens, that those are.

That's the thing that steers me away from truth, right? I don't know how it is that somebody can say something in a class or to my face or whatever, and I can discern immediately, oh, that's not real.

Or, oh, that's true. I. That's no problem for me. But the. The garbage that goes on in my brain, that's, like, insane. And so.

But it's interesting, too, that again, in Proverbs, this is six, chapter six, verse 18, he says, an heart that devises with wicked imaginations. But then right after, it says, feet that be swift in running to mischief.

And if I really am honest and I look at some of my rockiest relationships, they're rocky because my brain tells me they're the enemy. And then I go about doing something that causes contention. And whenever contention comes in, we know then the adversary wins.

We know that that's when he is able to infiltrate and change everything. And so I think that's really, for me, probably my biggest takeaway.

When I think about truth and girding my loins with truth and being a warrior for light and standing in truth, I think my biggest takeaway is I got to deal with me first. What truth am I rejecting? Okay, full transparency. And I.

Last time I did full transparency, I said, it's fine, because my husband probably will never listen to this. Then who. Who. Who knew that? He does listen to these secretly. And so I don't think he's heard that one yet. But still, full transparency. My.

My biggest weakness or lie that I tell myself is that I'm. I'm unlovable. And so my husband can't possibly love me, and that's why he's doing the things he's doing. And I have really been working on that.

I've really been working on what is the truth, because I have met with women for years, and they've said, he just doesn't love me. I know that phrase. And I've said to them, then why Is he with you if he doesn't love you?

Trust me, I've seen men who don't love their women don't stick around. So why is he with you? And yet, somehow I couldn't apply that own truth to myself.

But I think my biggest takeaway is that if I really want to stand in truth and be full of light and be protected with the things the Lord is standing ready to give me and I just need to receive them, then I have to receive what is true from him. And what is true is that I am. I have a good man and I am very lovable. And God knew I was going to have a hard time remembering that.

That's why he gave me the name Amy, which means beloved. So that every time I hear my name, I hear him say, you are lovable. So I think, for me, I know you didn't ask for takeaways, but here's my takeaway.

I think my takeaway is that I have to. I have to stand ready to receive the truth. And the only way I can do that is to reject the lies.

Tamara K Anderson

00:24:07.970 - 00:24:48.934

Wow, that is so powerful. And I love how. How you kind of dove in and talked about for me, how does this apply to me?

I've got to figure it out first so that I can then help other people. And I think that is a powerful principle right there.

You know, that you can't lift people higher than you are standing, so you've got to be standing on a higher plane if you want to lift people to a higher plane. That is just a general truth. Right. And so this is true that we. The best way we can do this is to fix the lies that we're telling ourselves.

That is so good. I love that. That's a powerful thing for each of us to do. Tiffany, any thoughts on this?

Tiffany Fletcher

00:24:49.102 - 00:29:10.090

Yeah, I. So this is something that I've actually, I think we all have the lies in our head, right? Satan is the father of all lies. And.

And as Tamara said, our mind is the final battleground that we have in these last days. That is where, like, he knows he can't get us with the big sins, so he's going to really get us with the lies.

And that's where this truth and discernment comes in, is I've learned that, okay, what are all the lies that Satan is telling me? And I. And I write them down. I get a piece of paper and I have. I write a column down the middle, and I'm like, okay. On the left.

I'm like, okay, what are all of the lies that Satan is selling me. I am not enough. I'm not a good mother. I'm not.

Not a good wife. I'm not lovable. I like all of the things I'm not doing enough. And then I say, okay, heavenly Father, what is the truth?

What is the actual truth of these things? And then with that spirit of discernment and that spirit of truth, like Tamara said, and before I do this, I have to clarify.

I always cast Satan's influence out, so I'm not hearing his voice. And I always invite angels and God's spirit in. So.

So that is the spirit that I'm listening to. And then I do this exercise, and I'm like, okay, what are the lies that Satan's telling me that I'm believing? And what is the truth of those lies?

And then I write those truths down, and then I look at it often, like, you know, cross out the. The old and just put those words of affirmation into my mind. I am enough. I am a good wife. I am a good mother.

And you can even, like, put them in a recorder and listen to them. Listen to them in your own voice saying them, because it's super helpful. And then you can remember.

It helps you to remember the truth of those things. Because whether we like it or not, Satan's plan is a plan of force. And so he's going to force those lies into our mind. Every time we relax, right?

Every time we are just doing the dishes or whatever it is that gets us into that way of thinking, he is going to force them in. And so we have to do something to combat it, and that is with the truth.

And, and so even, like, even, even Jesus himself, when Satan came to Jesus and was telling him all of these lies, Jesus used scripture to combat Satan. All three times Satan came, he used scripture to combat him. He used the truth. And so if we want to fight these lies, then I find scriptures.

I memorize scriptures that help me remember the truth. I memorize hymns that help me remember the truth.

I memorize affirmations, because words, this is really a war of words that we're in right now, right? Like God created the word, the earth with words, and words are powerful. And so we are in a war of words.

And so if we're listening to the negative lies, then we are using those words to destroy our soul. But if we use the truth, use the truth that we have in the scriptures, memorize those scriptures.

You get the truth from the spirit of who we are and what we can do for God, as his warriors of light, then we will be able to combat our own, in our own minds. We'll be able to combat the lies with the truth, with God's truth that is whole and beautiful and never changing.

And like this is a practice that I have done several times and it really is helpful. Does that mean that I don't fall back there once, you know, with, with the lies? No.

Satan is relentless and he's going to feed me lies and as soon as I stop believing one lie, that he's just going to find another one. Right. And so this is it.

This is an effort that we're going to do it often, daily, even if we have to, to remind ourselves these are lies, this is Satan, and I'm so much better than this. And this is the truth. And this is what God tells me about myself. This is what the spirit tells me about myself.

This is what I'm going to believe about myself so that I can stop, stop believing those lies and allowing them. Because every time we believe them, it steals our light. Like we're let.

We're literally letting the adversary steal our light when we believe his lies. And so if we want to combat that, we've got to do it with truth. And truth feeds our light and it fills our light and increases our light.

And so it's so important that we understand that, that these lies, we've got to stop listening to them. And we do that by casting Satan out and, and increasing our light by adding the truth back into it.

Tamara K Anderson

00:29:10.470 - 00:30:36.180

Oh wow, that is, I love that exercise. I've never done that before, but I think that is something I'm gonna just gonna have to go do now.

What are the lies I'm telling myself, what is the truth? And then find scriptures and stuff that affirm that truth.

I know I have a vision board right here on my wall and it, it reminds me of some of the things and I actually have some powerful I am statements and powerful scripture on there that help me with the goals I'm working towards. And so I love this idea of I can even put, you know, my truths up here, that I am lovable, I am enough, all those things.

But then finding those Bible verses that really, really talk about, okay, here's something that reaffirms that because if I look at this every day, then it reaffirms those truths to my brain. But there's days I don't look at it. You know what I mean?

And so like you said, it's a constant, constant battle, this battle for the truth in Our minds, this battle for. And this is interesting because it's not even the helmet we're talking about, but the battle is in our minds. But truth is part of all this armor.

This our loins could about with truth. Amy, you have something to say?

Amy Johnson

00:30:36.560 - 00:32:18.270

Well, in just Genesis, it just occurred to me. I'm very. I'm always fascinated by this wicked imaginations of the heart.

And In Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, it says, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And I. I used to think. I think that I thought that meant that they were thinking about lascivious things, right?

That they were thinking about lustful things. And I. And I'm not sure that's not true. But I have come to realize that in my own life, for me, that that means focusing on what's not true.

Focusing on things that will stir me up to contention and cause me to lose peace and to not be a peace creator, a peacemaker. And so for me, that was going on from the very beginning. And if we think about Cain, all his garbage started because of lies in his head.

He thought he should have been able to give a better, a different sacrifice. Then he was ticked off because Abel was bet loved of the Lord and that wasn't fair. And all the things that aren't fair.

Life isn't fair, as my mom used to say. So just live with it. But Jesus Christ makes it fair. He makes it all okay. So it's okay. So I just. I do, I love that.

I think we really need to hone in on the. What. What are the imaginations of my heart?

Tamara K Anderson

00:32:20.530 - 00:32:34.030

Wow, that is beautiful and powerful. We need to wrap it up. I wish we could just keep talking forever about this. Amy, you kind of gave your takeaway already.

But Tiffany, what is your takeaway from this episode?

Tiffany Fletcher

00:32:34.690 - 00:33:52.030

My takeaway is I. I want to go back to what Amy said about loins and posterity. I. I really want to.

And also that Jesus Christ is the ultimate truth that we put on, right? He is the ultimate truth source of truth. And that I want to make sure that I am helping my children stand in Jesus Christ.

Like putting on Jesus Christ and strengthening them in him so that as they move throughout the. The life that they are meant to live, that they will be able to be firm in him. I just found out like last month that I'm going to be a grandma.

So that to me is super exciting. And I think about that.

I think about, have I Taught my children to stand in truth and put on Jesus Christ and the light so that my grandchildren will be taught those same principles.

And it's just really kind of reaffirms the importance of scripture study with family and prayer and church attendance and all of those things that help us put on Christ in our lives.

And I want to start, not that I don't do it now, because we do, but I just want to be more intentional about putting on Christ and listening to the truth and combating the lies of today.

Tamara K Anderson

00:33:53.690 - 00:35:26.860

I love that. I think my biggest takeaway is.

Is what you were talking about, Tiffany, about figuring out the lies Satan is telling me and looking for the truth and his word of. Of how I can combat that. That's how I can apply it to me right now. Because the more.

And I love what you also said about that the lies that we believe take away our light. Like, oh, my gosh, that is so, so true.

And so I need to be filling my mind and my thoughts and my whole soul with truth and, and kind of girding up my lines, preparing for this battle by being proactive, right?

That we are actively stepping in, like Amy said at the beginning, receiving what God is already offering to us, receiving it and saying, I'm going to take this because I am God's child and he is allowing me to claim this truth and fight these thoughts, fight the lies that are being spread in our day with God's light and truth. And that. That brings me joy, it brings me happiness, it brings me peace. Because we can't feel peace when we're believing lies, right?

Any final thought?

Amy Johnson

00:35:26.980 - 00:36:09.070

Tiffany said something that I just. Okay, here we go. This, you know how I am. I get my thoughts.

But she was talking about Jesus Christ and all I kept thinking is, I am the way, I am the truth. I am the light, right? And so we put him on and And we take him upon us.

When you went back and circled back to receiving and take upon us, then I was like, we take upon us Jesus Christ in this, and that's how we. That's how we win that. The Father has already given us His Son to take upon us the truth, the way, the truth, and the life. So it's beautiful.

It's all about Him. It's always all about him.

Tamara K Anderson

00:36:10.970 - 00:36:18.470

All right, friends, thanks for joining us this morning, and may you walk in light and truth today. God bless.

Host

00:36:19.690 - 00:37:00.270

Thanks for tuning in to Bible Women and Bathrobes hosted by Women warriors of Light. We've loved exploring the stories of remarkable women or the teachings of the Savior today with you.

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All opinions we share are entirely personal as we are trying to decipher an opinion, apply Bible teachings just like you are until next time. Stay faithful and may your journey be blessed and illuminated by God's love.